Near-record November snowfall of 11.2 inches in Chicago

The pre-winter storm caused Chicago’s O’Hare Airport to cancel hundreds of flights just as many people were beginning to travel for Thanksgiving.

Many other flights were delayed.

“[Friday] night the area of McHenry County and adjacent counties got under a very well-defined snow band”, he said.

Locally, numerous crashes were reported at about 10 p.m. Saturday as temperatures dipped below freezing.

Midway worldwide Airport, which is in the southeast part of Chicago, had about 175 departing and arriving flights that had been canceled Saturday afternoon.

Southside True Value Hardware manager Matt Krienke said business had been good in the days leading up to the storm, but that it had become “very, very, very, very slick”. As of noon, O’Hare saw 11.2 inches of snowfall on Saturday.

He added that people who don’t need to drive don’t need to be out. Local police said one woman was struck by a vehicle after getting out of her vehicle.

The snow is pushing into northern IN and parts of MI after dumping more than a foot on Chicago’s northern suburbs.

The National Weather Service said a storm dumped from 8 to 16 inches of snow in a stretch between southeastern South Dakota to southern Wisconsin starting Friday. Grand Rapids in western MI had about 3 inches.

In the village of Capron, around 60 miles northwest of Chicago, which received 14.6 inches by Saturday morning, resident Robert Lukes said: “It’s a typical first snow for us, but it’s a pain in the butt”. Meteorologist Kevin Skow says the heaviest snow ban is expected to fall from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, down to Dubuque.

Winter weather advisories were posted for much of Lower MI and far northern IN, including Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing, the Weather Channel reported. The 11 inches of snow that fell in Chicago yesterday was the city’s highest November total in 120 years. It was beat only by a snowstorm from November 25-26, 1895, which dumped 12 inches of snow in the area.